Friedrich Schubert
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/23/Fritz_Schubert_porttrait.jpeg)
Friedrich "Fritz" Schubert (
Tried by a special court for war criminals in Athens, he was found guilty over the killing of over 250 civilians, sentenced 27 times to death and executed.
Earlier life
Few details of Schubert's pre-WWII life have been verified. Some Cretans believed that Schubert was born as Petros Konstantinidis (Greek: Πέτρος Κωνσταντινίδης) (the name he used when he was arrested by the Greek Police), son to a rich tobacco merchant in Smyrna and a Turkish mother and emigrated to Germany at a young age. There, he joined the National Socialist Party and became a dedicated Nazi.
However, it is verified that Schubert was German, born in
As a Wehrmacht non commissioned officer
![Detachment from Schubert's Jagdkommando in Tzermiado, ca. 1943](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c3/Schuberites_in_Tzermiado.jpg/250px-Schuberites_in_Tzermiado.jpg)
Schubert made his first appearance on Crete in summer 1941 as military interpreter to the Local German Command (Ortskommandatur) in
Major Hartmann organized the first armed group of pro-Nazi Cretans mainly from the Tzoulias family in the village of Krousonas. Despite the fact that Schubert took part in war crimes, there is no evidence that he was involved in the Krousonas pro-Nazi group until June 1942 when he took command. Schubert recruited several convicted Greek criminals and others pro-Nazi Cretans from Krousonas.
In April 1943 Schubert was transferred to
The Even today, calling someone a Schuberitis is considered in Crete to be a serious insult synonymous to treachery and cruelty.
These events had enraged the local resistance fighters and the British agents and made them want to eliminate the Schuberai at all costs. Soon, Schubert's unit lost its effectiveness as it could not operate away from his base without the escort of a large Wehrmacht protective force. It is also possible that German officers in Crete were enraged because Schubert's practices were too cruel even for the standards of Nazi Germany.
Hence, in January 1944 Schubert was ordered by Bruno Brauer to leave Crete.
When the German Army retreated from Macedonia in October 1944 Schubert and 70 of his men also retreated to Yugoslavia and stayed there for a few months. Schubert arrived in Vienna in February 1945 and before the Red Army captured the city he went to Schwaz in west Austria. When the US army arrived to Schwaz, Schubert and his mistress impersonated Greek displaced persons and were placed in a camp in Innsbruck awaiting transfer to Greece.[1]
After World War II
Schubert attempted to return to Greece because he wanted to be with his mistress or because he had no choice. On 5 September 1945 he arrived in
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Αθανάσιος Σ. Φωτίου (Αthanasιοs S. Fotiou) (2006). Η Ναζιστική τρομοκρατία στην Ελλάδα, Η αιματηρή πορεία του Φρίτς Σούμπερτ και του ελληνικού "Σώματος Κυνηγών" στην κατοχική Κρήτη και Μακεδονία (The Nazi terror in Greece, The bloody path of Fritz Schubert and the Greek "Hunter Group" in occupied Crete and Makedonia) (in Greek). Θεσσαλονίκη (Salonika): Επίκεντρο (Epikentro).
- ISBN 978-0307742223.
- ^ Αλ. Ασωνίτης (28 October 2001). "Σας αρέσει ο κ. Σούμπερτ;". Ελευθεροτυπία - Απογευματινή Εφημερίδα. Archived from the original on 17 February 2013. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
- ^ "Οι δίκες των Γερμανών κατακτητών της Κρήτης". Εφημερίδα Πατρίς. 7 July 2008. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
- ^ Beevor, Antony. Crete: The Battle and the Resistance, John Murray Ltd, 1991. Penguin Books, 1992
- ^ Kiriakopoulos, G.C. The Nazi occupation of Crete, 1941-1945, Praeger Publishers, 1995
- ^ Mazower, Mark. Inside Hitler's Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941–44, Yale University Press, 1995.